In the third part of our
series featuring BBC
TV news presenter
Naga Munchetty,
coach Lawrence
Farmer turns his
attention to the
putting green,
and suggests
tried-and-tested tips
and drills that can
help all golfers to trust
their instincts

By Lawrence Farmer
WRITTEN WITH CARLY FROST
SHOT ON LOCATION AT THE
BUCKINGHAMSHIRE GC

LINE 'EM UP: CHECK THAT YOUR EYES ARE OVER THE BALL

Lawrence says: Look around at the best putters in the game and you will discover
that the vast majority set-up with their eyes directly over the ball. This is regarded as
an essential in terms of consistently ‘seeing’ the line of the putt and effectively visualising
the ball rolling along that line and into the hole. As illustrated in the photos above,
a simple way to check this detail of your set up is to get yourself into posture, putter in
hand, and then drop a second ball from directly under your dominant eye. The point at
which it strikes the ground is where the ball should be positioned at address. (Make
the adjustment to your posture as necessary, and enjoy a true perspective of the putt.)

Naga says: Checking the ball position
relative to my eye-line was the first step
in my putting lesson – and the simple
test of dropping a ball from my dominant
eye quickly and easily revealed that I had
been playing the ball an inch or so too far
from my body. A quick adjustment, and I
found that with my eyes directly over the
ball I could much more easily relate to
the line of the putt – swivelling my head
gently along the line of the putt to the
hole helped me to visualise the path so
much more clearly.

HOLD ON LIGHT:
ELIMINATE TENSION,
IMPROVE FEEL

Lawrence says: For a lot of amateur
golfers, holding the putter with a tension-
free grip is much easier said than
done. We all know how anxiety on the
course can cause us to tighten up our
grip and lose that sense of feel in our
hands and fingers – which is why I’m a
big believer in encouraging students to
focus on ways in which it is possible to
relieve pressure and enjoy real flow and
freedom of movement in the hands,
arms and shoulders. One way to
achieve this is to hold the putter in one
hand and waggle it repeatedly as you
study the line of a putt – hold on lightly
and feel the tension drain from your arm
and hand. Another ploy Naga uses to
great effect is to stand with her arms
down by her side and literally shake her
arms and hands to relax her muscles
before taking her grip and set up position.

Make these habits part of your preputt
routine and you will give yourself a
better chance of relieving tension and
making a more free-flowing stroke.

Naga says: I used to be guilty of
gripping the putter much too firmly,
with a similar pressure to the hold I
would use for a full shot. This filled
my stroke with tension and I really
didn’t feel very natural with a putter
in my hands. To help release the
pressure in my arms and hands,
Lawrence encouraged me to shake
my arms for a few seconds before
taking my grip, which really has
helped me to relax the muscles in
my arms, wrists, hands and shoulders.
Another tip that I have built in
to my pre-shot routine is to swing
the putter freely with one hand as I
walk around to study the line of a
putt; without you even thinking
about it, this just gets a wonderful
sense of flow in your hand as you
swing the weight of the putter-head
to and fro – the perfect rehearsal
for the stroke itself

A SIMPLE PENDULUM STROKE

Lawrence says: One of the shared characteristics of a
good putting stroke is the smooth acceleration through the
ball. What we don’t want is a stop-start action, with erratic
speed through the impact area – that does nothing for your
ability to strike and roll the ball consistently and judge pace.

Like many golfers, Naga’s stroke lacked an even tempo
and her fault was to decelerate through the hitting area so
that the putter effectively slowed down as it struck the ball.
This led to inconsistencies of strike, often a poor bumpy
roll, and ultimately failure to hole out with confidence.

We have worked hard on improving Naga’s tempo by
getting her to practice a stroke that has the same length
back and through with a touch of gradual acceleration to it
(sequence right). This putts a very smooth roll on the ball.
And the analogy I used to help her is to think of the stroke
as the pendulum movement on a grandfather clock, ticking
back and forth with a metronomic rhythm.

Naga uses a face-balanced putter which is designed for
a straight-back, straight-through style of stroke (as opposed
to a toe-balanced putter which will suit a stroke with a gentle
arc to it). In order to get Naga’s shoulders nice and
square to the target line I get her to use a ‘Palms Together’
drill where she places both hands – palms open – on the
sides of the putter grip so that it rests through the lifelines
of her hands. Notice how when she now grips the putter
her shoulders are very square to her target.

Naga says: I’ve seen a
lot of Tour professionals
switch to holding the
putter with their hands
side-by-side on the grip.
It makes a lot of sense
to me as this really does
square the shoulders up
nicely.

THE WAY FORWARD...

Lawrence says: Marking a straight line on
your ball with a Sharpie is effectively a free lesson
on the putting green and you should take
full advantage of a practice that is widespread
among tour players the world over...for the simple
reason it works. With that distinct bold line
on your golf ball you will find it much easier to
aim your putter-face squarely along your
intended line. Of course, you do need to take
care in replacing your ball on the green and
ensure you have the line aimed correctly. But
once in position, all you then have to do is
match the line on your ball with the centre line
on your putter. Doing so takes away the uncertainty
of alignment and gives you a crystal
clear focus at address. (To mark the line use
the maker’s stamp on the ball as a guide or,
better still, get yourself a plastic stencil, which
you will find in most pro shops).

Naga says: I used to have
a lot of doubt about my aim
but since I have started to
mark a line on my golf ball I
have felt a lot more confident
and committed to making
a good stroke that starts
the ball on my chosen line.
As Lawrence was quick to
point out, for this to be truly
effective, you have to take
great care in replacing your
ball on the green so that the
line matches up with your
desired starting line. To me,
that only adds to the focus
that I now apply to alignment
on every putt.

LET YOUR INSTINCTS
TAKE OVER!

Lawrence says: Let me leave you with a few ideas
that will help you to go out and tap in to the power
of your intuition. The danger for all golfers is to get
so wrapped up with technique that you lose sight of
the fact that you are simply trying to roll a ball
towards a target. So give free rein to your instincts;
the next time you have a few moments spare on
the putting green, try hitting a few putts while looking
at the hole. As Naga discovered, diverting your
attention away from the ball and focusing her eyes
on the hole helped her to tap into her brain’s
instinctive messaging service, with the result that
she produced a free-flowing stroke that rolled the
ball at the correct pace without thinking about it...

DRILLS TO GO OUT AND TRY

‘Take 3’ tempo challenge

Line up three balls in a row and then putt them one
after another with your focus 100% on repeating the
length and tempo of your stroke so that you cluster
the balls as tightly as possible. There’s no need to
go for a target, just focus on that feeling of the
tempo being rhythmical and repetitive. Don’t look up
between putts to see where the ball has gone; wait
until after you’ve struck the final putt. With the same
tempo you should find that all three golf balls have
rolled out to a very similar, if not identical distance.

Repeatable pace

Another drill that removes the hole from the equation
is to practice putting to the fringe of the green.
This is especially good from twenty or thirty feet in
order to fine-tune your feel for the texture and speed
of the greens on any given day. Again, Naga uses
this drill as a means of tapping in to her instinctive
feel for the tempo of stroke necessary to get the ball
rolling with the correct speed so that it finishes right
up against the fringe.

Naga says: I used to
struggle with judging
the pace of mid- and
longer-range approach
putts. Like many
golfers, I had a tendency
to hit them too soft
and come up short;
every now and then I
would over-compensate
by giving it a bit of a
thump and send the
ball well past the hole.
Either way I left myself
a lot of work to keep a
three-putt off my scorecard!

To help with this
aspect of my putting,
Lawrence suggested
that I spend a few minutes
at the end of a
practice session rolling
three balls to a target
while looking at it –
i.e. not looking at the
ball, but swivelling my
head so that my eyes
focus on where I want
to roll the ball (in this
case to the fringe of the
green). The idea is that
instinct takes over – the
same way it does when
you toss an object into
a waste paper basket.

In other words, you’re
not thinking about what
you have to do to roll
the ball the desired distance,
you are visualising
and reacting to it.